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NOVEMBER 2019

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

1 IN 10 BABIES IS BORN

PREMATURELY

We know it’s not fine. But it can be.

This November, you can play a critical role in closing the gap for the 1 in 10

babies born prematurely in this country each year by taking the lead to raise

awareness and funds needed to support ALL moms and babies. March of

Dimes is turning up the dial to increase public focus to the crisis of

prematurity and other health risks moms and babies face.

It’s not just a month. It’s a movement. What do people know about the toll

prematurity takes? Its impacts on society, businesses and communities?

What it costs in babies’ lives and health, and how hard it can hit a family? You

can do something about it.

TOOLKIT INCLUDES

• Tips for a successful event

• Fundraising ideas

• Tips to publicize and

promote awareness

• Prematurity awareness

examples

• Key messaging and

moments

• Additional resources

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

Get inspired: Think about your WHY and help others connect to March of Dimes mission through

fundraising, events, learning opportunities and social media.

Recruit others: You could go at this alone, but that’s no fun. Grab your friends, family and get your

entire community involved. Brainstorm ways to raise awareness in big and bold ways!

Get organized: Set goals and assign roles.

Finalize logistics: Get permission (if needed) to turn a business, building, or community purple or to

host an event. Set your date, time and location.

Publicize and promote: Use your voice far and wide to help people fight for the health of moms and

babies and how they can get involved. Use our social media toolkit and share posts.

Show off your Purple: Grab your purple and encourage others to wear purple to the event or on a

particular day. Be sure to share on social media too!

Fundraise: Consider leveraging the new Do it Yourself fundraising tools to collect donations.

Educate attendees: During your event go beyond purple and educate people on what this means.

Share stats, stories, and raise awareness for ALL moms and babies.

Celebrate your success: Celebrate and thank your team.

Be counted: Let us know you’ve taken this action and give us feedback by filling out this form.

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GET STARTED

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL

EVENT

Clear Goals and Roles

Organize:

• If you haven’t already, let us know you are getting involved by signing up here.

• Consider adding a fundraiser to your awareness event. Set a fundraising goal. Host a

brainstorming session to find ways to reach goals. Sign up your fundraiser here:

https://www.crowdrise.com/m/MarchOfDimes/• Find a date, location, time and secure any guest speakers for your event.

• Get permission (if needed) to turn a building or part of your community purple or to

host a Prematurity Awareness Month event.

• Get your planning team together! Assign roles.

Recruit:

• Ask your network. Take 10 minutes to come up with a list of potential people that can

help support your efforts. Reach out to friends, other organizations, family, local

schools for support. Ask them to recruit others and share their ideas for how to bring

this issue to life in your community.

• Expand your network: Ask everyone to recruit at least three others to help by

spreading the word on social media. Ask them to post about the issue or to share your

fundraising page.

• Organize an event. Bring your team together by holding an awareness event or a

moment throughout the day that helps people connect to the issue.

Fundraise (optional): See page three for additional ideas!

• As a team, determine how to reach your goal.

• Ask for donations and encourage others to do the same. Keep in mind that it takes an

average of three asks to one person to get a donation.

• Keep talking about the fight for the health of moms and babies and why you are

passionate about the cause. Let supporters know how their help can bring you closer

to the goal.

• Follow up with people who said they were interested in giving but haven’t yet.

• Stay motivated. Send updates and celebrate the progress your team is making.

Host:

• Check to make sure you have your event essentials.

• Call and confirm that any guest speakers have what they need.

• Start setting up for the event at least an hour before it starts. Set up a reasonable

amount of chairs, depending on how many expected attendees. Have a welcome table,

enter for a door prize and/or check-in. Events do not always run on time, build some

room in your schedule to allow for late arrivals, or speakers that go over their time, etc.

• Share the event on your social media. Be sure to tag us! See tags in sidebar.

• Share your “Best of” event moments with March of Dimes National by entering the

Prematurity Awareness Month photo contest here for your chance at weekly prizes.

Reflect and celebrate:

• Thank everyone who helped and share how much was raised and/or the impact made

throughout the month.

• Celebrate with your team.

• Jot down any notes or ideas that you could implement for next November!

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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Don’t forget to take

photos! Be sure to tag

@marchofdimes and use

#PrematurityAwarenessM

onth, #ItsNotFine and

#WorldPrematurityDay (on

November 17) in your

posts!

Be sure to enter March of

Dimes Prematurity

Awareness Photo Contest!

SHARE:

Depending on the number

of guest speakers, your

event could last anywhere

between 1—2 hours.

Welcome and

introductions

Guest speakers

Wrap up/discussion

Activities and door

prizes (could do

throughout event)

SAMPLE EVENT:

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

FUNDRAISING IDEAS

AND TIPS (OPTIONAL)

Do It Yourself

Fundraise your way:

• Empower families by supporting them before, during and after pregnancy with a

do-it-yourself fundraising campaign. You choose the activity, and moms and

babies win!

• Start a Facebook fundraiser to make a meaningful gift to help moms and babies in

your community and across the country.

• Do you livestream or broadcast? Start a fundraiser with us on Tiltify.

Ideas:

• Push up for preemies. Host a push up competition.

• Sell purple shirts.

• Gather your friends with a talent for music and rock out in purple by hosting a

concert or dance.

• Host a pizza party and ask for a $5 donation.

• Host a movie night and ask for a $5 donation.

• Host a bake sale and sell cupcakes, food, etc.

• Host a “Dime War.” Coordinate member/chapter wide challenge for a specific time

period (usually 1—2 weeks). Select a prize that will motivate people to participate.

Top team wins. Use jars, buckets or whatever you have locally.

• Make your own team shirt and sell them to friends, family, and fellow members

with the profits going your team fundraising total.

• Reach out to business in your community and encourage them to donate a

certain amount of $ to your team to have their logo featured on the shirt.

This is a great way to reach your goal fast.

• Raffle (prizes).

• Donations/hang on wall and giveaways to those who donate (i.e. wristbands,

pencils).

• Put up a photo booth with props-charge $1 for a photo (and post to social).

• Host a tournament (basketball, dodgeball, baseball, etc.).

• Get creative—come up with ideas that work for your group and have fun.

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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Start with your own $25

donation

Ask four family

members for $25 each

Receive four $10

donations through

Facebook fundraisers

Ask five neighbors for

$10 donations each

Ask three local

businesses for a $25

donation

Ask a teacher for a $10

donation

HOW TO RAISE

$300:

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

Patty Gentry (571) 257-1199

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

TIPS TO PUBLICIZE AND

PROMOTE AWARENESS

Use your voice far and wide to help people learn how they

can help moms and babies and how they can get involved.

• Share your own story. Share why you are involved with March of Dimes. Share

with others, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram-don’t forget to tag

@marchofdimes and use #PrematurityAwarenessMonth, #ItsNotFine and

#WorldPrematurityDay (on November 17) in your posts! Get creative and create

signs, posters with the tags to share with others via social media as well.

• Show off your purple. Wear your purple and get crazy with it. Make your entire

outfit purple and share on social media. Have a competition for the person who

shows off their purple the best.

• Light it purple. Change light bulbs, decorate halls, and post statistics in area

businesses and throughout the community. Help people understand what the

purple means.

• Educate. Create an event and moments throughout the month to connect the color

of purple to March of Dimes mission and raise awareness for moms and babies.

This could be one on one, over lunch, hosting an awareness event, decorating a

bulletin board, and finding other creative ways to bring the stats to life. One idea is

to use purple balloons and put one balloon on every 10th [chair, desk, etc.] with a

stat taped to it to represent that each year in the U.S. approximately 1 in 10 babies

are born premature.

• Share on social media. Use our social media toolkit that has sample messages,

stories and images to post messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Mirror

your offline engagement with what you share online to reach more people. Don’t

forget to tag us!

• Brainstorm and find ways to share in conventional ways (through email, morning

announcements, local school newspaper, newsletters, table at a school or

business, posters around community, etc.)

• Brainstorm and find unconventional ways to share.

• Props—ideas to bring stats to life, orange juice/folic acid.

• Host a lunch and learn.

• Host a week of activities to keep the drumbeat going.

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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Be sure to tag

@marchofdimes and

use

#PrematurityAwarenes

sMonth, #ItsNotFine

and

#WorldPrematurityDay

(on November 17) in

your posts!

GET SOCIAL:

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

PREMATURITY

AWARENESS EXAMPLES

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

KEY MOMENTS AND

MESSAGES

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

KEY MOMENTS:

KEY MESSAGES:

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

Why we fight.

The U.S. is facing an urgent maternal and infant health crisis. It’s one crisis, not two.

This crisis is not just about the health of babies born too soon, it’s also about those

we’ve lost, including the moms who have died and those who face serious health

challenges before, during and after pregnancy.

• In just one year, more than 22,000 infants die in the U.S. alone, and 1 in 10 are born

preterm.

• Premature birth and its complications are the largest contributors to infant death in the U.S.

• The U.S. preterm birth rate is among the worst of highly developed nations and increasing

more for women and children of color.

This is not fine. With our partners, we are working to make a difference and expand

solutions that we know can improve outcomes for moms and babies.

During the month of November — Prematurity Awareness Month — we aim to break through the

noise and drive awareness around the issues facing moms and babies in our

country…#ItsNotFine. We must act. Join us.

CONTACT

EMAIL

PHONE

ADDITIONAL

RESOURCES

MARCH OF DIMES LEADS THE FIGHT FOR

THE HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

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PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH

SAMPLE MESSAGES AND VIDEO/IMAGES:

• As November draws closer, you can get social media resources here:

https://thesocialpresskit.com/march-of-dimes

• Video/image resources are here: https://videolibrary.marchofdimes.org/

• We Won’t Stop video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSS3kH283Y

• National Service Partner video (collection of images): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB1JAeTXUx4&fea

• Additional video resources here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MarchofDimes/videos

• Prematurity Awareness Month Campaign Page (live Nov.1):

https://www.marchofdimes.org/prematurity-awareness-month.aspx

• Don’t forget to take photos and share online! Be sure to tag

@marchofdimes and use #PrematurityAwarenessMonth, #ItsNotFine and

#WorldPrematurityDay (on November 17) in your posts!

• March of Dimes gift guide: https://gifts.marchofdimes.org/inspired-gear• Do It Yourself Fundraising:

https://www.marchofdimes.org/giving/fundraise-your-way.aspx• Be sure to enter March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Photo

Contest!

• Other ways to get involved: https://www.marchofdimes.org/volunteers/volunteers.aspx

HELPFUL LINKS:

Patty Gentry

pgentry@marchofdimes.org

(571) 257-1199

THANK YOU JOINING THE FIGHT FOR THE

HEALTH OF ALL MOMS AND BABIES.

PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH